Malard Manufactoring Essay

1. The balance of the structure in Malard Manufacturing is very flat and horizontal, and basically has very little vertical structure at all. Julie Crandell who is the executive vice president, likes to keep very tight control among the organisation in which she controls. Julie demands that department managers check with her before any significant decision are made or changed, by doing this Julie has made her span of control too big for her to handle in the due time she has to complete it by, it’s become very difficult for Julie as she has to deal with new inexperienced department managers, who are becoming uncommunicative and frustrated with each other. Vertical organisational structure means a strict top down structure. Typically this structure has been a favored form for many business and other types of organisations. In such an organisation, the chain of command is usually very important and must be followed. In faster moving, dynamic conditions, a vertical organizational structure can become very inefficient, for example, requiring decisions to slowly go through many people along the vertical chain of command before actions can be made by those who need permission to act. Horizontal organizational structure means a flat or closer to flat organizational. In a perfectly horizontal structure, there are no leaders, so usually this means a structure that is still vertical, but has been made more horizontal than what is typically referred to as vertical, Julie’s structure for example. In general, any large organizational structure has both vertical and horizontal aspects to it and depending on whether it is considered to be more vertical or more horizontal results in what it is called. The communication between executive vice president Julie and the department managers is minimal as stated above. Julie needs to work out a new strategy of horizontal communication that will give her the results she needs, possibly a centralised wheel approach for faster and more accurate communication. Examples of different horizontal communication are as follows. Intradepartmental problem solving. These messages take place among members of the same department and concern task accomplishments. For example: ‘Bec, can you please help us fill out the inventory report form?’ Interdepartmental coordination. Interdepartmental messages facilitate the accomplishment of joint projects or tasks. For example: ‘Bec, please contact the Materials department and arrange a meeting to discuss the specifications for the new product materials, we may not be able to meet there needs’. Change initiative and improvements. These messages are designed to share information among teams and departments that can help the organisation change, grow and improve. For example: ‘We are having a discussing about the budgets of several departments and would like your input for the discussion’. 2. If I were Julie Crandell, I would feel compelled to organise a project meeting with all department managers and discuss a way to create a new strategy or work out the difficulties in the existing one, so that it will be successfully appropriate to attain the result we need as an organisation. Whilst having the project meeting and discussing the new deadline for project CV305 and receiving all department managers input and problems, I would then organise weekly project meetings along with regular progress reports, I would then suggest a decentralised management approach, the advantage is Julie the Senior manager would have time to then concentrate on the most important decisions, as the other decisions can be undertaken by other people down the organisation structure. Some good examples of having a decentralised management approach are, Decision making is a form of empowerment, and empowerment can increase motivation and therefore mean that staff output increases. Empowerment will enable departments and their employees to respond faster to changes and new challenges. Whereas it may take senior managers like Julie longer to come up with a similar response. Staff within departments would sometimes have a greater knowledge of the product their producing and would then be able to make better choices and decisions then say Julie, there for this approach would suit the organisation better then all ways lining up to see Julie for her advice and approval, which may take a long time as Julie had little time to oversee everything with her centralised approach. Another approach Julie could take would be to hire a personal assistant. As Julie is a person that has so much on her plate for example, scheduling management meetings, answering phone calls, dropping letters off to the post office and checking her schedule, as well as many more other duties. These errands could all be done by anyone else like a personal assistant therefore saving Julie precious time so she can concentrate on more important tasks then organising meetings and writing up reports. 3. Julie has made a wrong choice by choosing to go with the centralised decision making structure, instead she needs to find a more appropriate structure that will be able to deliver and suit the companies desired outcome in the time line they have set for the new product. This structure will need to be decentralised, so decisions are made quicker and more accurate as Julie may not have quite well an understanding of the product then say the department manager. A team based approach is what I personally think Julie should use for the development of new future products. One of the best forms of business organisation is the team-based structure. A team based structure is an organisation that groups employees on the same work level into teams that perform specific functions within their job tasks. This structure combines the low-overhead, minimal management structure of a lateral structure with the team efforts common to a hybrid structure. There are numerous advantages to a team-based lateral organizational structure. A team-based organisational structure is similar to a traditional lateral structure, in carrying less overhead management to cause delays in decision-making and implementation of best practices or new ideas. With no need to wait on a lengthy chain of command to receive approval for ideas or changes to the, a team-based lateral structure can make necessary changes on the fly and allow for rapid response to different market conditions. This is especially important in today’s digital economy. By spreading the responsibility among teams involving everyone involved in project CV305 rather than having a single person (Julie) in charge of all decision-making or management of a project, decisions can be reached by a quorum and can take place rapidly as team members can be assigned to research areas of need, implement changes, or work on other problems while other team members continue to focus on the current situation of the project. Decisions made by a team are often better thought out and more effectively implemented than decisions made by a single individual, that being Julie in this case. A team-based organisational structure will eliminate Julie’s centralised flat chain of command, Julie’s centralised approach caused delays and worker frustration with cumbersome communication lines. A team can more effectively raise concerns to management without having to wait a unpredictable time for Julie’s response, This can make individuals more willing to speak out about problems or inefficiency due to not having to wait, and being able to receive their answers quicker. If Julie were to establish a task force or assign a project manager, so they can establish and assist departments in representing them, and to share their information with other departments which will enable coordination. In addition to creating task forces, companies also set up cross functional teams. A cross functional team furthers horizontal coordination because participants from several departments meet regularly to solve ongoing problems of common interest (Mintzberg, 1979).